My recommendations for film watching this week in L.A. 11/6-11/13/15

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My recommendations for movie watching this week in L.A. 11/6-13/16

ON NETFLIX: High Noon, written by Carl Foreman and directed by Fred Zinnemann, is one of the greatest westerns ever made with Gary Cooper’s performance one of the best in American film. Playing Marshall Will Kane, he is about to leave on his honeymoon, but instead remains in town to take out a group of gunmen bent on revenge, though no one in town will help him. Tensely directed (the movie takes place within the real time of the events) and just as tensely written, it’s a must see for anyone interested in movies. Often seen as a metaphor for the McCarthy era in Hollywood.

ON HULU: A Man Escaped is one of writer/director Robert Bresson’s best and most accessible film. Tense and fascinating, it is made in the distinct Bresson style, non-actors in the roles and underplaying the emotional aspect of the scenes. During WWII, a French resistance fighter is arrested and put in a Nazi prison. His only hope to escape a death sentence is to escape the prison.

SPECIAL NOTE: The AFI Film Festival plays Oct. 5-12. This is a great festival, especially since all the tickets are free.

FIRST RUN and OPENING: Spectre, The Peanuts Movie, Brooklyn, Spotlight, Trumbo, Welcome to Leith, Miss You Already, Heart of a Dog, Love, Room, The Martian

REVIVAL AND ART HOUSES:

AMERICAN CINEMATEQUE at The Egyptian: AFI Fest

AMERICAN CINEMATEQUE at The Aero: Love, 11/6-8; Billy Liar, The Night Porter, 11/11